The Dreamer's Big Break
by vapourtrailreads
Summary: She couldn’t help but think maybe this was her big break after all. Standard. Written for THC Round 7, stacked with QLFC Round 3


A/N:

Thank you so much: Gen, Wish, 2D, Elaine, AJ, Di. Thanks for sticking with me while I shuffled through ideas and prompts like the scatterbrain that I am...

**The Dreamer's Big Break**

"Oh, no."

The minute Tina stepped inside the house, Queenie had looked up from the dress she'd been working on, face turning white as she scrolled through the mental logs in Tina's mind. "The _Wand Permit Office?" _she shrieked. "Of all places? They sent you _there?"_

Tina slumped into her favourite chair by the fireplace.

"Oh, Teenie..." Queenie sent the mannequin out of her way and hurried over.

"I hate this," Tina murmured. "Having to work behind the scenes."

"What do you mean?" Queenie frowned at her. "You're an Auror, Teenie. Your work's all about behind the scenes. _Preventing_ the scene from ever happening in the first place - isn't that what you do?"

"I just feel-" Tina stopped and sighed. "I feel like I should be doing more with my life than this, Queenie. I feel like I wasn't supposed to be a follower. And I _was_ an Auror until I got demoted for the New Salem incident a few hours ago, remember?"

Sometimes it felt like she would never get to do things the way she wanted, never get the chance to dance to her own beat for once. From across the table, Queenie peered at her like a fruit farmer studying a freshly plucked pear. Then she came over and put her arms around Tina.

"You'll get your big break, Teenie," she whispered soothingly, resting her head on her sister's dark curls. "I just know it. Someday, it'll be your own beat you're dancing to."

_XXXXXXXX_

That night, Tina sat on her twin bed in the room she shared with Queenie, writing in a small leather-bound journal. It had been a habit of hers since her days in Ilvermorny and, try as she might, she had never fully kicked it.

_Dear friend,_

_Today was my disciplinary hearing. Madam Picquery has decided to transfer me from the Major Investigations Department to the Wand Permit Office. I suppose it's better than getting sacked from MACUSA entirely and having to look for a job as a Magizoologist's assistant._

She paused. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.

_Oh, who are you kidding,_ she thought, before putting her quill to the paper again.

_My friend, what if I was wrong? What if I'm really not destined to do anything worth remembering? What if I'm the failure everyone said I would be? These demons in my heart, these insecurities I have inside me… what if they're not just things I conjure up for myself? What if they're facts set in stone?_

She read through what she'd written, heart falling a little at how depressing it was. A quick time check spell told her it was nearly eleven.

_I'd better go to bed.__~Tina_

_XXXXXXXX_

Tina's wand was shoved up her grey coat sleeve, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. Some Auror habits died hard, she supposed.

She bit into the hotdog she'd bought, the decadent salty taste flooding her tongue. But her eyes never left the silhouette of the woman who'd cost her the job of her dreams, the woman who now stood on the steps of the bank, preaching her poisonous doctrine.

Someone stumbled into her, and she squeezed the poor hotdog a little too tightly.

"Oh, excuse me," the man said, ginger hair covering his eyes. Tina eyed him haughtily as he wandered past her into the crowd.

She turned her attention back to Mary Lou Barebone, who seemed to be in her element.

"Something is _stalking_ our city, wreaking destruction and then _disappearing_ without a trace!" she cried, looking out over the transfixed crowd, fanatical satisfaction written on her face. "We _have_ to fight. _Join_ us, the Second Salemers, in our fight—"

Tina rolled her eyes. Just then -

"Sorry, doll," grunted a short, plump man in a brown suit, shuffling past her as well.

She was on the verge of screaming at the entire world to just _let her spy on the damn No-Maj cultist in peace, _when Mary Lou advanced on the ginger man who'd bumped into Tina earlier, a hungry gleam in her eye as she interrogated him mercilessly. A pang of pity went through her for the poor soul.

Just then, he started violently and dashed up the steps of the bank, his shoulders tense with obvious panic. Smelling a rat, Tina cast a quiet tracking spell on his case, then finished her hotdog.

_Are you my big break, mystery wizard?_

_XXXXXXXX_

Evidently not.

She'd hauled him to the Major Investigations Department, where she'd been blatantly turned away by the President herself ("You are no longer an Auror"), and then dragged him over to the Wand Permit Office, where they'd proceeded to discover that one - his case had harboured more crazy creatures inside, and two - he'd conveniently lost it.

After that, they'd gone on a wild goose chase, where they'd found the No-Maj who'd taken his case by accident _and_ sustained a wound from one of the escaped creatures. And now they were all holed up in her and Queenie's apartment, where they'd endured an entire dinner's worth of awkwardly sitting around the table and doing more staring than eating.

_My life is insane, _Tina groused mentally as she stirred the hot cocoa Queenie had insisted on making and made her way over to the guest bedroom. _I'm such a lame person._

Just her luck, to get demoted for reckless behaviour and then wind up harbouring fugitives. The room felt suddenly colder, as if all the happiness in the world had fled, making her blood go stale in her veins. It was like fate had written out a horrible melody for her life, and she was following it, beat after beat, with no hope and no choice to break free from the rhythm.

_Am I destined to be a failure, Morrigan?_

She handed the No-Maj Jacob his cocoa mug, slammed Newt Scamander's mug on the bedside table with an audible _bang,_ then retreated to her shared room, picking up her journal.

_Dear friend,_

_I'm in a mess again. I'm hiding an un-Obliviated No-Maj and a foreign wizard who has a case full of magical creatures and an infringement of Section 3A hanging over his head…_

_XXXXXXXX_

And then said wizard and No-Maj had fled in the middle of the night to look for his creatures, leading her on another wild goose chase that had sent them in and out the MACUSA dungeons, and then they had gone to the Blind Pig speakeasy for information, which they'd barely escaped. Now they were hiding out on the roof of Squire's building, waiting to retrieve the last of Newt's creatures, also known as—

"—Dougal, my Demiguise," Newt said sheepishly. "Slight problem is, well, he's invisible."

"Invisible," Tina repeated.

And when she'd asked how one would go about finding an invisible creature…

"With immense difficulty," Newt had admitted, the most adorable flush tinting his freckles.

She couldn't help but think maybe this was her big break after all. Tina smiled at Newt, the demons of insecurity quieting at the inexplicable happiness opening in her chest, and he returned it with a jerky bow of his head.

_XXXXXXXX_

She did end up getting her big break. Even got back on the investigative team, thanks to Newt pulling a few of the strings they'd uncovered along with Grindelwald's disguise. She could dance to her own beat now, alright.

But standing at the dock, seeing the ship sail away, Tina had never felt more tired.

She couldn't help but think that maybe she should let him go—it was a miracle that he would want anything to do with her after what had happened, really—but it was too late for that. The past few days had woven him into her soul, and he was the single card in her hand she couldn't bear to fold.

Sighing, Tina sat down at the breakfast table, placing her coffee mug on the coaster, and opened her journal. Lately, she had begun using it for something else other than writing her thoughts. Some might call it creepy, but it made her a little happier all the same.

_Dear Newt, _she wrote,_ I hope this letter finds you well... _

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

**The Houses Competition**

House: Ravenclaw

Year: 3

Category: Standard

Prompt: [Prompt] Dance to your own beat.

Word Count: 1355

**_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_**

**Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition**Team: Appleby Arrows

CHASER 1: **Write about a character, excluding Neville, who spends most of their time behind the scenes, but eventually gets their moment to shine.**

OPTIONAL PROMPTS:

#1: (song) Demons - Imagine Dragons

#11: (emotion) happiness

#12: (object) journal

Word Count: 1355


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